Sgt. Mom

Sgt. Mom
Location
San Antonio, Texas,
Birthday
February 21
Bio
Retired military, novelist and mother, sucker for animals and homebody

North of the Arctic Circle, the day of the winter solstice is barely half an hour long, and isn't even a day, merely a few minutes of heavy grey twilight before the shades of night swoop in again. All during that year

Read full post »
NOVEMBER 20, 2009 7:24AM

A Post on the Far Frontier

Old Officer Quarters - Ft. Martin Scott

Most people, when they have a mental vision of an Army fort on the American frontier, think of a wooden stockade of standing timber – but that was hardly ever the case in Texas. Indians almost never attacked those forts, so defensive walls were not necessary. An ArmyRead full post »

NOVEMBER 18, 2009 7:52AM

On Being A Real Arthur

That expression became something of a family joke, as I came around, by easy steps, from being a teller of tall tales, an intermittent scribbler, an unrepentant essayist, a fairly dedicated blogger … to being – as my daughter put it -  a real arthur. Yes, a “real arthur”… Read full post »

NOVEMBER 17, 2009 8:11AM

Real Texas BBQ

The real stuff comes hot off the grill, wrapped in heavy butcher-paper, served up with a couple of slabs of plain white bread, lashings of sauce, onions, coleslaw and beans. When it's still on the grill, and you go out to the screen-enclosed porch where the industrial-strength griller/smoker sits - a… Read full post »

(By request, from May of this year - a reposting of the basic Sgt. Mom interview)
 
SgtMom1978
 Sgt. Mom, 1978
Do you mind telling me some basics things about yourself--age, sex, where you live, where you grew up, any siblings, any children, niecesRead full post »

From: Sgt. Mom

To: All In Group
Re: Effective Response to Ungentlemanly Attentions

1. It is occassionally brought to my attention that certain alleged gentlemen in public life have been behaving in an abusive and ungentlemanly manner, most particularly in their attentions to assorted female co-worke… Read full post »

NOVEMBER 12, 2009 7:50AM

Horatio The Puppy-Cat

My pet-loving neighbor, Judy, claims that the very best cats have something of the qualities of dogs in them; they are friendly, curious and open to all kinds of adventurous interaction with other species. Sometimes such cats as these like water, are perfectly agreeable to walking on a leash… Read full post »

ChateauThierryCemetary
(Gates - Chateau-Thierry American Cemetary)
 
And for this day, a link to last year's Veterans' Day post, about my Great-Uncle William, who died on the Somme, in 1916.
Read full post »
Editor’s Pick
NOVEMBER 10, 2009 11:45AM

In Honor of the USMC Birthday - Marine Rules for Gunfights

1. Bring a gun. Preferably two guns. Bring all of your friends who have guns.
2. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive.
3. Only hits count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss.
4. Move away from your attacker. Distance… Read full post »

 

So, why is all this historical stuff important, wonders every bored high school student, leafing through a textbook the size of a small-city telephone directory -  which for all the efforts of the pedagogic classes – is usually about as interesting as one. Thick concrete-like block… Read full post »

NOVEMBER 9, 2009 7:19AM

Pet Detective, Inc.

There must be something in the water, or a phase of the moon. One of my neighbors blames it all on the comparatively wet summer -  another sign of global warming or cooling or whatever. A co-worker blames it all on that

Read full post »
NOVEMBER 8, 2009 11:05AM

The Whip Hand and the Velvet Glove

It was briefly reported in the aftermath of that car-bomb attempt on the Glasgow airport terminal, some two years ago, that bystanders yelled “let the ****er burn!” as rescuers attempted to extinguish the fire burning on the clothes and flesh of one of the aspiring jihadis.

 The f… Read full post »

NOVEMBER 6, 2009 8:45AM

La Vie en Rose-Colored Postcards

 

Courtyard - California Exposition

           My Grandpa Jim, who was short, energetic, and as a young man, fabulously charming, emigrated from Five-Mile-Town, County Armagh in 1910. Sometime over the next few years, he fetched up in Southern California. Having been… Read full post »

Editor’s Pick
NOVEMBER 5, 2009 8:14AM

Why Writers Turn to Drink

 (Another essay from a couple of years ago, when I was still trying to get my second venture into historical fiction published the traditional way.)

 Or this one would, if it weren't a weekday. Besides the slow corrosive frustration of dealing with the various submissions processes of the b… Read full post »

NOVEMBER 4, 2009 8:47AM

Gay Cats & Lesbian Dogs

So, now that my daughter Blondie and I are supporting a houseful of critters -  some of whom interact agreeably with each other, and some others of whom maintain a guarded distance and a policy of non-recognition, and one who spits and

Read full post »
NOVEMBER 3, 2009 8:15AM

The Best of Times, the Wurst of Times

(Hey look - I could have called this entry "Fried Green Pickles at the Whistlestop Cafe ... but what the heck, it was more fun this way.)

Fried Green Pickles - smaller

So, once the Halloween decorations were sorted out and put away, we could think of nothing better to do… Read full post »

NOVEMBER 2, 2009 8:15AM

More Writer's Life Waltzing

 (A little more on the process of creating agreeable and fairly historically-accurate genre fiction - a blog-post originally done when I had nearly completed the final edit of  Book One - Adelsverein and was researching and scribbling the first draft of  Book Two.)

 Oh, the blogg… Read full post »

OCTOBER 31, 2009 3:08PM

Just for Fun on Halloween

My daughter rather enjoys Halloween; she has a penchant for dressing up the walkway from the street to our front door with large spiderwebs adorned with large spiders, with skulls and bones scattered here and there, and strings of orange and purple lights.

 We also have a penchant for humiliatin… Read full post »

I’ve done three local book club meetings so far, to answer questions from readers who have read one or anther of the Trilogy, and have another two scheduled in the near future, so I thought I’d get around to answering some of the questions that I have been asked about the… Read full post »

OCTOBER 29, 2009 9:52AM

Autumn of Butterflies

  Budelia and Butterfly

(Budellia and Butterfly - October, 2009)

Summer has been mild here in South Texas, and so has the fall been: unnaturally so, for today it was still in the 80s, which made it necessary to keep on

Read full post »
OCTOBER 28, 2009 8:48AM

Redline Overload

Sometimes, it’s a real pain in the ass, knowing history – kind of like one of those lines of telepaths in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover novels, who could see all the possible futures, resulting from any deliberate or random action and usually went mad, from it – not daring… Read full post »

OCTOBER 27, 2009 9:44AM

American Aristos

For a people that with a great deal of fanfare and self congratulation threw over a monarch and the accompanying aristocracy over two centuries ago, Americans have displayed an avid interest in the doings of such parties, and a dismaying tendency to

Read full post »
OCTOBER 24, 2009 8:06AM

A Taste of My Next Book!

The Road to Quivera

Chapter Two: A Traveler from a New Land

             On the whole, Jane Goodacre reflected, the morning of her first day as personal maid to Lady Isobel, it was much more interesting – if a little more onerous &… Read full post »

OCTOBER 23, 2009 10:05AM

The Writer's Life Waltz

(Just for fun, and for skeletnwmn - who is about to buckle down and get serious about her own book-writing - this was something I scribbled for my other blog, in January, 2007, when I was just getting launched on the epic which would eventually become the Adelsverein Trilogy. This isRead full post »

OCTOBER 22, 2009 9:16AM

The Uses of History

A while ago, one of the readers of this blog or one of my others commented thusly on one of my historical pieces: "Why couldn't they tell history this well when I was in school a half century ago? About that same

Read full post »